Ice Butterfly
by razena
Summary: It wasn't enough to prepare him for the pain that exploded throughout his body the split second his artificial skin touched the golden metal. The pain was so sudden, unexpected and fierce, so intense and so darn painful that he almost let go. But he steeled himself forcing himself to ignore the searing pain and lifted himself higher as he found himself staring at evil...


**Wow razena! You posted something two years after you posted last time?! You should get the award for the BEST AUTHOR EVER!**

… **. Seriously though… I am** _ **super duper sorry**_ **for not having posted my other two stories which don't even have a Chapter 1 yet…. But I'm getting there. PINKY PROMISE SWEAR… Whatever. Don't care if promising and swearing are** _ **kinda**_ **the same thing… but… yeah whatever.**

 **Anyway, I needed to get inspiration back so I could continue those two stories so I decided to write a small one shot about Zane's POV (not quite) in the Titanium Ninja. Yaknow, when he sacrificed himself? Yeah that one. It's kind of the same with my first story ever (which had no creativity whatsoever in the summary or the title so if you'd give me ideas about that in the reviews that'd be great) but it's WAAAAY better.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Ninjago belongs to LEGO**

" **That… was IT?"**

…..

…..

…..

" **That was All."**

" **You've."**

" _ **GOT?!"**_

The golden tendrils came out of nowhere grabbing Ninjago's heroes, catching them by surprise and making them curse themselves for leaving themselves open to the most _dangerous freaking_ _ **ENTITY**_ to ever have lived!

They grunted and strained against the sudden pressure around their bodies as the strange tendrils started squeezing the air out of their lungs and crushing their ribs.

Cole tried to use his super strength when a thought occurred to him.

"The armor," he wheezed. "Why isn't it WORKING?"

" **Because your time,"** the Overlord replied without missing a beat. **"Is OVER!"**

The Overlord was a formidable foe. He was a literal god of destruction if you count the fact that he had been here since the very beginning, he was excellent at manipulating and had a knack for evil (but of course otherwise he wouldn't have been dubbed 'the Overlord').

However, he must have had a terrible lack of foresight otherwise he would've realized that he had missed one of the ninja. And that said ninja was now looking straight at him as well as taking off his mask…

Zane had run every scenario through his head. What they could've done and what they could do now. None of them ended well so he couldn't risk trying any at all thanks to the many probabilities of failure. But he couldn't just stand there and do nothing either! He's friends where captured and would soon meet they're unfair fate and he was just going to stand there and stare? No thank you!

But than what was he supposed to do? The snakes had warned them about this. Golden power was unstoppable! The very force that created the world they lived in right now!

 _And a world that will be destroyed later because you didn't bother to do_ anything!

But WHAT?! There had to be something!

Wait… wait…

The golden weapons. The golden armor. If he could just….

He quickly ran a quick diagnostic and found that it was about 49% prone to fail. Not to mention he would-

Zane abruptly turned off his statistics as he remembered what Kai had told him earlier that day.

 _It's not about numbers._

And to think all of this happened in less than a millisecond…

Zane took off his mask and stared at the Golden Master defiantly. He could honestly say that he had never felt so angry, determined or fearful in his life.

"Support me friends. For one last time"

 _No turning back_.

He started running across the roof and jumped across. Suspended in air for a second he quickly landed on one of his brother's feet when they had forcibly turned themselves upside down, so he could get across. He jumped from person to person until reaching his mentor's feet before giving a very strong leap using the momentum to perform a front flip before reaching out for the golden armor, so he could hold on with his hands. He mentally braced himself before landin-

 _Oh fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff—_

But it wasn't enough to prepare him for the pain that exploded throughout his body the split second his artificial skin touched the golden metal. The pain was so sudden, unexpected and fierce, so intense and so _darn painful_ that he almost let go. But he steeled himself forcing himself to ignore the searing pain (which was virtually _impossible_ by the way) and lifted himself higher as his hands tightened on the metal. And found himself staring at _evil._

"Let. My. Friends. _**GO**_ "

The words where strained and short and his voice went a few octaves higher than usual which would have made him feel a bit humiliated had it not been for the searing pain that was still attacking his systems.

" **Go WHERE doomed ninja?"**

Zane shifted a bit on the golden armor, tightening his hold on it as he tried to get some sort of respite from the hot searing pain, but it only seemed to make it intensify. He felt as though the power was running through his systems ripping apart wires, frying his circuits, shaking his body, cracking his exo-skeleton-

Oh wait. Yeah that was exactly what was happening wasn't it?

He felt the left side of his faceplate abruptly lose the strength to stay attached to him and plummet to the ground without the need of physical force whatsoever.

Hmmm… that part had always been the easiest to get rid of in fights hasn't it… He would've said he'd fix that later but he was too busy thinking about the _pain_ and the fact that there was no way there could be a next time…

… Oh yeah and the Overlord was talking now…

" **The golden weapons are too POWERFUL for you to BEHOLD,"** he screeched in triumph. **"Your survival chance… is ZERO!"**

It was around this time that Zane realized he was glowing. Was it because being in touch with one of the weapons he had once wielded had activated some type of power? OR was it because his exo-skeleton's cracks where so big that the light of his power source was starting to shine through?

Whatever the case, these random thoughts DID NOT help distract him from the pain that was STILL THERE or make the Overlord disappear.

He gasped as he tried to keep his senses. "This…. Ugh… isn't about numbers! Gah… It's about family…"

A panel of a strange line that was jumping up and down VERY rapidly and it took him a full moment to realize that it was his heart… or power source… URGH WHATEVER!

 _ **Give it up ninja. You'll never make it out alive…**_ a sinister voice suddenly whispered

 _That's the idea,_ Zane thought back angrily. He didn't know who was talking but he couldn't bring himself to care now.

 _ **Ha! Oh, I see what's going on here. You don't want to see the death of your comrades, don't want to watch as he rips them to shreds'**_

 _Shut up_

 _ **Oh are you denying it? We both know that you would've been the last one to live had things been different. You would have watched them wither away into nothing but dust while you stayed perfectly young and healthy. You say you stand for the weak, yet how can weak be aided by the weak, the cowards.**_

It was true. He had figured that when his father died(again), he would have been the last to die after his friends, up to 10,000 years after, and during this time he'd be alone, not brave or strong enough to become attached once more in fear of losing them again. But why would this strange voice bring this up now?

 _ **There is no escape for you here. They will die soon after you and the people of the city will follow soon after. It'd be best if you faced it like a man and let go instead of dying first as a coward would.**_

 _Shut up_

 _ **Let go first. Let go of the road of the coward**_

 _Shut up!_

It was hard enough as it is with all the pain that was _still_ bombarding his systems and the Overlord's disgusting face but now there was a voice demanding he let go? Any other day, he would have realized that the voice was using hypocritical wording and inconsistencies to confuse him into letting go of the Entity's armor.

 _ **You think you can stop the Overlord? You're not the green ninja! The one destined to 'stop the Lord of Darkness'! That prophecy was a fraud to begin with! He didn't destroy the Overlord, what makes you think you can DEFEAT him?! Let go. RIGHT. NOW!**_

… What?

It was then that Zane realized that this voice was none other than what other people call doubt. Anxiety. Fear. Pain. The dark side of a person.

He didn't realize he had one.

But now it was asking him, demanding he let go, he let EVIL win.

That he quit.

He doesn't remember a time when he had ever cursed, but he'd be damned if he _quit._

"I am… a nindroid." He yelled aloud, still gasping as his body continued to spasm in pain... "And… ninja never _**quit**_!"

His voice broke again, straining so hard on the last word he heard his voice box (which was a literal box) crack with effort. He knew what he had to do.

"Go ninja… _**GO**_ "

He used the power of the ice element that was still inside the Golden Armor to levitate before letting go and using his hands to shoot ice at the Entity of evil, the Ice expanding his powers.

" **What are you** _ **DOING?! LET ME GO YOU FOOL!**_ **"** The Overlord screamed in terror and Zane couldn't help but feel a tiny sum of satisfaction when he heard the pain.

The only problem now was that the pain _intensified_ _ **even**_ _ **MORE!**_ Despite this Zane didn't let up and continued to shoot his element towards the Golden Master all the while gritting his teeth and praying that it GO AWAY while simultaneously trying to ignore it despite having realized that it _wasn't going to work._ However, despite that he continued to cover the Overlord in frozen water even when his energy levels went all over the place, even when his heart rate went faster and faster, even when the Overlord forcibly pushed him away screaming, **"LET GO!"** he didn't allow himself to drift to far before shooting ice again and magnetizing himself back to the Golden Armor and continued firing ice.

But everyone has their limits and Zane was quickly reaching his. He could already feel his hand slipping off the Golden metal and he fought against himself just to _hold on DAMN IT_! Because if he let go, if he stopped the flow of ice from his hands, then the Overlord would just kill his friends and enslave the rest of the world just like he had planned from the very beginning of time! Evil would triumph and he would probably spend the rest of time alive, alone and imprisoned as a punishment without his friends because they would be dead.

He's friends.

He's family.

His eyes where stinging wit h a sensation that was both familiar and unknown and he closed he's eyes to stop the sudden tears from leaking out…

 _They jumped from the side of the bounty neatly landing and jumping off a shop that was there before landing on the ground and brandishing their weapons, grinning like idiots as they basked in the glory of their new suits, a feeling that apparently no one returned._

 _They where surrounded by stone warriors that where now under the control of one of the most unexpected people of all and things where finally starting to look up. They raised their weapons above Lloyd with a "NInjaaaaaaaaaaaaa-goo!"_

 _They were surrounded by tree horns, but they didn't despair. Instead they all spinjitsued in unison and spun towards the giants to ensure their victory against them._

 _ **The door to the strange light-house prison opened and a familiar yet un-familiar face was revealed with one of the biggest smiles he'd seen on anyone's face. But he was too shocked by who it was exactly to react…**_

Zane finally remembered how to open his eyes and did so.

The Overlord was now shaking just as violently as Zane, unable to escape the bitter cold of the ice now surrounding his body or the ferocious pain that accompanied it. He was now in the same predicament as Zane and the pain was now worse than it already was, if that was even possible. But in contrast to the Overlord, Zane…

 _The kind eyes of the person he had come to love as a father figure staring at him with pride and a gentle smile on his face…_

… had the strength…

" _There's something special about you Zane."_

…To smile…

He closed them again but this time in content and calm acceptance. He was going to die, but that, he decided, was ok. He was in a heap of pain, but that was ok too. He couldn't ignore said pain, but it would be a pain far worse if his family had died instead of him. But they wouldn't have to do that now, now, they would be safe.

Broken? Yep. Sad? Maybe. But they would survive. They would be _safe._ They would find a way and they would come together again stronger than ever. He knew they would.

He let the memories wash him away.

 _He stared down at the tree horn queen. "I know who I am!" He shouted before throwing his shurikens at different directions spinning into a tornado of ice in front of his brothers before surrounding her, snow kicking the air…_

 _ **He had just recently found out he was a nindroid and was now dancing to the music of '**_ **Hello my Baby** _ **' after switching his funny switch…**_

… _**until the elderly man threw his arms around Zane's shoulders in a big and fatherly hug…**_

… _**he continued to dance and sing to the music much to the growing shock of his brothers but for a moment in his strange and devastating predicament, he felt… normal and… in the mood to laugh…**_

… _ **as he moonwalked to back to the start spinning around in a circle until he reached the place he had started…**_

 _The bird flapped it's wings in response to Zane waving them up and down in order to get it to dance before it flew off, but he followed it down the steps of the mountain where the monastery stood._

Zane raised his head to sky basking in the bittersweet memories clinging on to the ones he loved the most, almost forgetting about the pain that was still there…

 _ **He held the fragile creature in his hand while his father explained, "You were built to protect those who cannot protect themselves." He looked back down at the beautiful winged insect once more before it lifted off into the air and started to fly away prompting Zane and his father to smile.**_

The bouncing lines on his radar quickly turned red and instantly stilled…

He felt himself falling into a sea of white, a tornado of snow, a blanket of death.

It was fitting he supposed…

" **NO!"**

The Overlord screamed bloody murder, but Zane stayed quiet. There was nothing to say anyway…

 **Hope you enjoyed! Read and review! And God bless you!**

 **(I'll get to the other stories SUPER soon I PINKY SWORE REMBER?!)**


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